GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Two seeded players including the big server Vasudev Reddy, fell by the wayside as the defending campion Nitin Kirtane laboured to enter into the second round of the Oil-ATTA National Tennis Championship being played at the Zaloni Club of the Oil India.

Apart from Vasudev Reddy and seventh seeded Vishal Uppal, who was downed by Amod Wakalkar of Maharashtra, all other seeds including the top seed Marcus Hilpert of Germany were through to the next round. Amongst those who entered the next round were Gaurav Natekar, Sandeep Kirtane, Asif Ismat, Vikram Ventatraghavan and Harsh Mankad.

But the match of the day was between the third seeded Vasudev Reddy and unseeded CV Anand of Tamilnadu. Vasudev was confident from the beginning but both the players could not hold their serve for the first five games, however as many as eight double faults cost the set to Vasudev as Anand with clever ball play took the set 6-4 by breaking Vasudev in the ninth game.

The second set was even more interesting. The former champion begged the first three games but lost the next five games as Anand wrapped up the match 6-4, 7-5.

If that was not enough, the second upset came from Amod Wakalkar when he gave scant respect to seventh seeded Vishal Uppal of Delhi to defeat him in straight sets 7-6, 6-3. In the first set there was tough fight between both the players with good use of the court and it was stretched to the tie breaker when Amod prevailed upon Vishal.

However defending champion Nitin Kirtane did not allow any room to a fighting Janmeet Singh of Chandigarh although he was stretched to three sets Nitin lost the first one to Janmeet 5-7. But came back strongly in the next one to pocket it 6-3 and in the decider Janmeet simply caved into the experience of Nitin 6-1.

The top seed Marcus Hilpert of Germany smashed out Binay Karia of Andhra 6-1, 6-3. He got an easy draw at his hand and a real opposition should come only in the semifinal when he is expected to face the likes of Kirtane brothers or Asif Ismail. With as many as 60 ATP points in his kitty, this nippy German player is proving too tough for the local challenge here. He is meeting Bhaskar Choudhury of Assam in the next round.

In an another match fourth seeded Sandeep Kirtane with clinical precision removed RG Arvind (Karnataka) from his way 6-4, 6-2 to fix an appointment with another big server Asif Ismail who defeated veteran S Narendranath 6-4, 6-3.

In the ladies segment all the seeds sailed through to the next round. Although some of the matches are still being played at the nearby Tingrai Club but the preliminary report says that third seeded Jahnavi Parekh demolished Sri Charanya 6-1, 6-0 while eight seeded Archana Venkataraman blanked out M Sihnu Preetam 6-0, 6-2.

RESULTS:

Men's singles: Marcus Hilpert (Germany) bt Binay Karia 6-1,6-3; Praveen Kumar bt Manoj Chauhan 6-3, 6-0; Amod Wakalkar bt Vishal Uppal 7-6(7-5), 6-3; Sandeep Kirtane bt RG Arvind 6-4, 6-2; Asif Ismail bt S Narendranath 6-4, 6-3; Anand Radhakrishanan bt SK Shivsankar 2-6,6-2, 6-4; Nitin Kirtane bt Janmeet Singh 5-7, 6-3, 6-1; Vikram Venkataraghavan bt Mustafa Ghouse 7-6, 6-3; S Fazalluddin bt Rohan Wadhera 6-3, 6-3; VN Premprakash bt Rohan Saikia 7-6, 3-6, 6-3; CV Anand bt Vasudeva Reddy 6-4, 7-5; Harsha Mankad bt Roahi Sridhar 6-3, 7-6; Rohan Bopana bt Vikrant Chadha 6-4, 6-4; DR Jayadeva bt Sriranga Sudhakar 7-6, 6-4; Gaurav Natekar bt Saurav Panja 6-3, 6-3.
Men's doubles: Rohan wadhera/ Rohan Malhotra bt Robin Dhingra/ Yasser Arafat 6-4, 6-3; Amod Wakalkar/ Nitin Kirtane bt Praveen Kumar/ DH Satish 6-4, 6-4.Women's singles: Reetu Seth bt Dindrilla Mazumdar 6-1, 6-3; Trishna Willama bt Sabiya Pathan 6-2, 6-4; Manish Malhotra bt Debsomita Mazumdar 6-1, 6-2; Puja Desjmukh bt K Subasini 6-3, 6-2; Arati Vankataraman bt Apatna Ribi Vasan 6-4, 5-7,6-4; Archana Venktaraman bt M Vihnu Preetam 6-0, 6-2; Priya Ball bt Rupashri Bharalli 6-1,6-1.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.